Drawing Deep Read Online Free PDF

and not in a fight or flight sense. This was pure feminine nerves running amok at the memory of a man she must have combined with a too-good-to-be-true fantasy. No male was that good-looking, that virile, that damn fascinating that she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Her memory had to be faulty. It was the only explanation why an almost stranger drew her to him like a magnet to steel.

Or blood to a vampire.
    Maybe that was it. Maybe the blood that coursed through his veins was stronger, more potent because he was more than human. Then again, she hadn’t felt this sharp tug toward any of the other shifter males, and she certainly hadn’t had naughty dreams about them. Or waking fantasies, which was completely humiliating to Ria who prided herself on refusing to allow any male to control her actions or thoughts since leaving her dysfunctional family behind. Growing up with a dominating father, a demented great-grandfather and a deranged much older sister had nearly warped her, but thankfully she’d had enough morals left that when daddy had demanded Ria, then barely sixteen, lay with her brother-in-law “for as long as it takes to get pregnant”, Ria had bailed.
    And panicked every damn day since her escape over eleven years ago that she would be found and dragged back to that hellish environment.
    She unclenched her jaw at those memories and took another drag. At the same time, movement in the middle of a row of orange trees caught her attention. Santos stepped into view. Though he was too far away for her to scrutinize each detail of his face, she had no problem appreciating the feline grace of his movements, the strength of his body and pull of his muscles as he braced a foot against a tree trunk. She had no idea what he was doing until several oranges fell into his waiting hands. And the way his fingers closed over the round fruit nearly made her eyes cross in jealous desire, wanting to know how those fingers would feel on the bare flesh of her breasts. Even now they grew heavy and achy with need, her body reacting as if she caught sight of a long-lost and longed for lover.
    Not good. Not good at all.
    Did I bring my binoculars?
    When that inane thought popped into her mind, she shook it free, and watched with greedy eyes as Santos walked the line of trees with a casual swagger. Every now and then he would reach up and trail his fingers over an orange, and she wanted to whimper.
    Disgusted at herself – though she didn’t seem to be turning her back on the sight of him now did she? – Ria took another drag from her cigarette, letting his image blur behind a veil of smoke when she slowly exhaled. She must be suffering from jet lag. Or indigestion. Or something . No way did she have the hots for a shifter.
    As she wrapped her lips around the filter one last time, two things happened. Santos abruptly turned his head, his gaze unwaveringly focused in her direction, and her cell phone, in the outside pocket of her jacket, let out what seemed to be a shrill ring in the still, nearly silent morning.
    Startled, Ria choked and coughed and blinked as tears blurred her vision. By the time she got herself under control, Santos was gone, as was the caller.
    “No wonder they say these things will kill you,” she rasped to herself as she dropped the butt into a partially filled plastic cup of water she’d used last evening.
    Walking back inside, she headed for the mini-fridge located under the vanity and yanked out the coke Gwen had provided in last night’s snack basket. She checked her phone, then frowned at the number that popped on the screen. Dax. With the two-hour time difference it was nearly four-thirty in the morning back home. Not that it wasn’t unusual for him to be up at this hour. He was a bartender at his family-run nightclub, and a vampire himself, but as they’d seen each other only days ago, the call was odd. At one time they’d been close, at least physically, but her walls of self-preservation and